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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25835110">take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamquams/pseuds/tamquams'>tamquams</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dreamer Trilogy - Maggie Stiefvater, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, M/M, Ronan Compliant Language, i wanna say it's canon compliant but i don't know and if it isn't.... my bad, just two magical boys in a magical forest being in love &lt;3, loosely based on the lakes by taylor swift because i'm me, post TRK epilogue but pre CDTH</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:48:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25835110</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamquams/pseuds/tamquams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Just a few more steps,” Ronan murmured, his hand secured over Adam’s eyes. “No peeking.”</p><p>“I’m <i>not</i>,” grumbled Adam, even though he almost certainly was.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>148</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>[shows up super late with iced coffee] uhhhh hey y'all ♡ it's been a minute!!! i promise i haven't abandoned writing, i've just been really lacking in motivation :( i have a TON of stuff started but i'm just. bad at finishing it. sorry! i'm hoping to get my mojo back soon, but until then, here's this! i hope you like it ♡</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Just a few more steps,” Ronan murmured, his hand secured over Adam’s eyes. “No peeking.”</p><p>“I’m <i>not</i>,” grumbled Adam, even though he almost certainly was. “I swear to God, Lynch, if you’re taking me out here to kill me—”</p><p>Ronan snorted and guided Adam forward a few more steps. “Why would I take you out into the middle of nowhere to kill you?” he asked. “I could just kill you at the Barns, easy peasy lemon-squeezy. You wouldn’t be the only body buried out there.”</p><p>Adam’s voice was judgmental despite the stupid smirk on his face. “What, is that supposed to reassure me?” Before he could continue, however, they finally stopped walking. Ronan waited a moment, squared his shoulders, and then removed his hands from Adam’s face.</p><p>For a few seconds, Adam was quiet. Not speechless; just quiet. Observing. His eyes raked over the landscape before them and took it all in, his eyes cold as ever. Anyone else may have mistaken his expression for analytical or detached — and they wouldn’t necessarily be <i>wrong</i>, but they sure as hell wouldn’t be <i>right</i>, either — but Ronan saw the twitch of his jaw, the glint in his eye. Adam Parrish was amazed.</p><p>But he was also, at the end of the day, still Adam Parrish. He did not begin with <i>Ronan, this is amazing!</i> or <i>Ronan, is this what I think it is?</i> or <i>Ronan, you magnificent thing.</i> Instead, he said only one word, not tearing his gaze from the scene in front of him: “How?”</p><p>Ronan stared straight ahead as well, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I don’t know,” he said before he could stop himself. Before Adam could object, he shook his head and continued. “I mean, I know. I dreamed it. Of course I dreamed it. I’ve been practicing, obviously. I slept here a couple of times, and when I woke up, there were more pieces. And now, uh, here we are.”</p><p>“Here we are,” Adam echoed, so softly it must have been more to himself than to Ronan. He swallowed thickly, then finally turned to glance at Ronan for a moment. “Is it…?”</p><p>He did not have to finish his question; Ronan knew exactly what he meant. “No,” he said, his voice gentle. He clenched his jaw. “No, it’s not… it’s not Cabeswater.” The words were hard to say, even harder while he was looking at Adam. Adam’s shoulders tensed and his chest deflated slightly, but he didn’t show any signs of disappointment on his face (at least, none that Ronan could decipher). Ronan added, “It’s something else.”</p><p>This was a given, but Adam didn’t call him on it. He just nodded and turned to take in the landscape once again, scratching absently at the back of his head. “Does it have a name?” he asked. His voice was scratchier than it had been just moments before, but Ronan didn’t bother mentioning it.</p><p>“Lindenmere,” whispered Ronan, and the trees whispered it back to them.</p><p>Adam’s face broke into a grin. “Lindenmere,” he repeated, eyes wide with wonder, and the forest sang it back. Adam turned his grin on Ronan then, so full of joy and love that it was nearly hard to look at. It was impossible to look away.</p><p>“It knows you,” Ronan said, taking a step toward the treeline. Adam strode alongside him, reaching out a hand to run across the bark of the first tree he could reach once they crossed the treeline. </p><p>Adam’s eyes fluttered closed. “How?” he asked again, leaning forward and resting his forehead against the tree.</p><p>Ronan watched unabashedly, his smile too full and giddy to be anything but sincere. “Because <i>I</i> know you.” He couldn’t help himself; he reached out and brushed a thumb over Adam’s cheekbone. “And the ley line knows you. You aren’t its hands or its eyes, but…” Adam tilted his head slightly into the warmth of Ronan’s palm. “You’re important to it.”</p><p>“Important to <i>it</i>,” Adam laughed shakily, “or important to <i>you</i>?”</p><p>“Both,” said Ronan without a moment’s hesitation. Adam laughed again, steadier, and pushed off from the tree.</p><p>“Okay,” Adam said, wandering deeper into the forest. “Show me around. Give me the grand tour. And try not to disappoint, Lynch.” </p><p>It went unsaid that there was no universe in which Ronan could possibly disappoint Adam, but he let the point slide. They stepped deeper into the forest, Ronan leading the way, and Adam reached out to brush his fingertips against the bark of every tree they passed. Ronan could hardly hold back his smile.</p><p>“It’s not like Cabeswater,” said Ronan after they had journeyed a few hundred yards. It was dark in the section of the forest they had arrived in, the canopy above them so thick that it held every last ray of sunshine at bay. The only light source was a luminescent blue moss that crept across the ground and up most of the tree trunks that surrounded the boys. “It’s not defenseless. It’s dangerous.” A step behind him, Adam was reaching out to touch the moss, and instinctually, Ronan reached out to stop him, but at the last second, he pulled his hand back; better to let Lindenmere demonstrate the point.</p><p>Adam’s fingertips were centimeters from grazing the moss when it slinked away from him. Startled by the sudden movement, Adam flinched back for a moment, his brows furrowing. The moss stopped moving a few inches away, and he reached forward again, slower, and watched it retreat once more. He considered it for several seconds and then turned to Ronan, frowning. “What’s it doing?”</p><p>Ronan’s grin was halfway amused, halfway proud. “That moss,” he said smugly, “is killer moss.”</p><p>If anything, Adam’s frown grew deeper. “Well, I think it’s defective,” he said, glancing back at the moss. “Unless it likes to play with its food first.”</p><p>“It’s not defective,” scoffed Ronan, feigning offense. “It’s functioning perfectly fucking well, thank you very much. Everything in this forest is dangerous, but it’s not dangerous to me, and it’s not dangerous to you.”</p><p>Adam blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t get it,” he mumbled, staring past Ronan into the depths of the forest. “I’m not the Magician anymore.”</p><p>“Don’t be fucking ridiculous,” said Ronan with a dismissive wave of his hand. “With or without Cabeswater, you’re always gonna be the Magician.” He took a step toward Adam, closing the distance between them, and rested one hand against his cheek wordlessly. Adam mirrored him, and they stood there like that for several seconds before breaking apart to move further into the woods.</p><p>“Over there,” Ronan said, pointing vaguely to their left, “is a field where the flowers release toxins into the air when they sense danger. And beyond that is a cliff drop-off, but you can’t see it until you’re right on the edge.” He lifted a hand and let it pass through some low-hanging leaves as he walked, and the leaves seemed to whisper quietly when he touched them. </p><p>Adam considered all of this quietly, the look on his face caught somewhere between pride and wonder. “And where are we headed?” he asked, his face tilted up to examine the thinning canopy. Sunlight was beginning to filter in, warm and summery, and it painted Adam’s face in a dozen different shades of gold. Ronan felt tension he didn’t even realize he had been carrying melt off his shoulders.</p><p>“You’ll see,” he said with a grin like a razor’s edge, holding his hand out behind him. Adam took it at once, twining their fingers like it was the most natural thing in the world — and it was. More often than not, being with Adam was effortless, and when it wasn’t, the effort was well worth it. Like any couple, they were prone to arguments and mistakes, but there was no room for misunderstanding here in Ronan’s dreamscape, here in Adam’s hands. Ronan led him through the dwindling undergrowth and then past the treeline.</p><p>They had only made it a few steps into the open before Adam was pausing, Ronan stopping beside him and squeezing his hand. “Oh,” said Adam, breathless with surprise. He turned his head slowly to take in the entire scene before him, then let out a single, joyful laugh.</p><p>“You like it?” asked Ronan needlessly. He had eyes only for Adam; even his own creation couldn’t compare to the boy beside him. He watched adoringly as Adam’s lips parted, his eyes widened, his chest rose and fell with his steady, rhythmic breathing. “It’s—”</p><p>Adam interrupted him as if he hadn’t even heard Ronan speaking. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said softly, but his gaze was turned on Ronan, not the landscape. “Is it…?”</p><p><i>It’s for you</i>, Ronan wanted to say, but he didn’t. He was pretty sure that even if most dream things made it through a loophole in Adam’s ‘no gifts’ policy, a magical lake in his brand new leyline forest was pushing it. “It’s bottomless,” he said instead, allowing himself to sound slightly smug. “And perfectly clear.”</p><p>Adam nodded. “What’s in it?” Ronan raised an eyebrow, and Adam continued, “<i>It’s dangerous</i>, right? What’s the lake’s defense mechanism?”</p><p>Ronan snapped his teeth at Adam with a loud <i>click</i>. “Bone-stripping piranhas,” he whispered, using his grip on Adam’s hand to pull the other boy closer. He snapped loudly at Adam’s ear, and Adam shoved his shoulder lightly before pressing their foreheads together. Ronan immediately sobered.</p><p>“Tamquam,” said Adam, his breath ghosting over Ronan’s lips. His eyelids fluttered closed and he exhaled softly, his hands resting on Ronan’s shoulders.</p><p>Ronan’s eyes went out of focus as he took in the dusting of freckles across Adam’s cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. “Alter idem,” Ronan murmured in reply. Adam leaned forward and pressed a light, lingering kiss to his lips before pulling back.</p><p>“Where are you—?” Ronan began as Adam took a few steps backward, but he fell silent as Adam tugged his shirt off and threw it on the ground. He tilted his head as Adam kicked off his shoes and socks and then shimmied out of his jeans.</p><p>Adam’s smirk was wicked. “It’s safe for us, right?” he asked, and he hardly waited for Ronan’s nod of affirmation before turning and jumping into the lake, splashing water a few feet up the shore. Ronan watched for only a moment before unbuckling his belt and undressing himself to join Adam.</p><p>The lake was clear, just as Ronan had said, but he could only see a few dozen yards below before the view was swallowed up by darkness. Adam was floating on his back near the center of the lake, and the bone-stripping piranhas were nowhere to be found as Ronan swam out to join him.</p><p>“What do you think?” Ronan asked as he approached, his arms stretching in a lazy backstroke. “Better than Cabeswater? Worse?”</p><p>Adam hummed thoughtfully, his eyes closed against the sun. “I don’t think you can compare it to Cabeswater,” he said after several seconds. “Nothing will ever be like Cabeswater, not really, not for me. It’s different. But not in a bad way.”</p><p>Ronan considered that. “Okay,” he conceded, exhaling softly. “Fair enough. But does it, you know…” He swallowed nervously and let himself come to a standstill in the water. “Does it live up to your expectations?”</p><p>Unexpectedly, Adam laughed, but it wasn’t cruel laughter; he sounded surprised. “As always, Lynch, it fully <i>surpasses</i> anything I may have expected from you.” He sighed and turned his head, opening his eyes to regard Ronan where he floated less than a foot away. “You’re remarkable. Stop fishing for compliments.”</p><p>At that, Ronan snorted. “<i>Remarkable</i>,” he repeated mockingly, turning away slightly so Adam wouldn’t see the blush rising on his cheeks. “Shut the fuck up, you pretentious asshole. Just say ‘cool’ like everyone else.”</p><p>Rolling his eyes, Adam splashed him. “If I thought you were cool, I would’ve said ‘cool.’ You’re not cool, you’re a nerd who knows Latin, runs a farm, and carries a bird on your shoulder. Don’t get it twisted.”</p><p>“Fuck off,” Ronan said, because he couldn’t think of a better comeback. He splashed Adam in return and then blew out a long breath, his hands raised in surrender. “Come on, tour’s not over yet. Get your lazy ass dried off and dressed. I don’t want my dream forest to think you’re a slut.”</p><p>Adam laughed, but he followed Ronan toward the shore anyway. “You’re real charming, Lynch,” Adam said drily, but he was smiling, and that was all that mattered.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>well, i hope you enjoyed! like i said, i've started a lot of ficlets that just need some endings, and i'm still working on my multi-chaps so please bear with me! i love y'all lots and i hope you're doing well and staying safe! as always, you're welcome to come interact with me on tumblr, i'm @wespers and i like to think i'm funny and nice! p.s. title comes from the lakes by taylor swift ♡</p></blockquote></div></div>
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